It appears 2013 is going to be the year of the barrel-aged cocktail. And of locally grown and
produced foods. And gluten-free diets.

These are a few of the items on the National Restaurant Association’s annual list of the hottest
menu trends for the new year, with a new survey of drink and cocktail trends added for the first
time.

Tops on the new cocktail list are drinks and cocktails aged in barrels on site.

Ryan Valentine, the beverage director for Cameron Mitchell Restaurants, is no stranger to the
trend. The company will be serving margaritas and Manhattan cocktails aged on site in charred oak
barrels at its new restaurant The Pearl, which is set to open in February.

“Really, this is the trend inside the trend. We see people going back to classic cocktails and
variations of classic cocktails,” he said. “The barrel-aged concept fits inside that very well.
What’s cool about it is you’re able to do something unique in-house to bring a twist to a classic
cocktail.”

Topping the list of food trends for the second year in a row are locally sourced meat, seafood
and produce. Diners should expect that trend to stick “because it’s not so much of a trend, as an
awareness or a sea change in the way people see their food,” said Chris Crader, owner of Harvest
Pizzeria in German Village.

The restaurant exclusively uses locally made and sourced meat, cheese and produce, and grows
many of its own vegetables on a 1-acre farm near Canal Winchester. “People realize it’s fresh, and
that is why it tastes better.”

The growing awareness of locally sourced food, and the growing number of restaurants — such as
Till, Knead, Black Creek Bistro and DeepWood — crafting their offerings around that philosophy has
created new opportunities for restaurant owners as well as their customers.

“When we first started, it was sometimes hard to find the (produce) we wanted,” Crader said. “
There were a lot of gaps (in sourcing) we didn’t know how to fill, but once farmers found out about
what we were doing, they found us.”

Columbus is also uniquely situated, as a growing city enveloped by rolling farmlands, to take
advantage of eat-local movements.

“We have farmers all around,” Crader said. “It’s only going to get easier for restaurants to
engage in the eat-local movement.”

Gluten-free foods also remain a top trend.

The gluten-free movement is spurred not only from an increasing population of people with wheat
and gluten intolerances, but from the public’s growing concern over where their food comes from,
said Dr. Audrey Todd, owner of Food for Good Thought, a gluten-free bakery that doubles as a
vocational training center for people with autism.

Gluten-free is growing out of the same philosophy as the eat-local movement, she said.

“People are trying to eat more fresh, whole foods, and they’re more concerned about processed
and modified food.”

Since the 1950s, she said, wheat has been modified for both higher yields and qualities to make
processing easier. “The wheat available now is not the same wheat our grandmothers ate.”

At the bakery, we “see a lot of people who aren’t gluten intolerant but feel better when they’re
not eating gluten,” Todd said.

These trends are linked by one thing: information.

“People have so much access to information via cooking shows, magazines, the Internet and the
Food Network,” said Cameron Mitchell’s Valentine. “The industry can’t leave any stone unturned. We
have to be on top of what we’re offering, because people are paying attention to what is going on.
And now our job is not necessarily to bring them something they’ve never thought of or heard of,
but to give them something they have been looking for.”

Off the menu

• The contents of The Clarmont, which closed last year, will be auctioned off on Monday. The
sale, in the former restaurant at 684 S. High St., will include memorabilia as well as seating,
kitchen and bar equipment. For more information, contact auctioneer Paul Delphia at
614-267-5100.

• Another Yogeez will open soon at 4740 Reed Rd., No. 106, next door to Nicola’s. The frozen
yogurt purveyor is also opening a location soon at 6355 Perimeter Dr. in Dublin.

• A new Panera Bread opened last week at the Commons at Clark Hall, near Granville and Hamilton
roads in Gahanna.